Stanley Zazelenchuk taught in Kuujjuaraapik (Great Whale River) and in Sanikiluaq on the neighbouring Belcher Islands for three years in the late 1960s and acquired a very interesting and surprisingly varied group of carvings in those years. Many of them, including this fascinating and wince-worthy work, are illustrated in the Winnipeg Art Gallery catalogue of the Zazelenchuk Collection. Kuujuaraapik, the southernmost Inuit village in Nunavik, is directly adjacent to the Cree village of Whapmagoostui, and according to the Zazelenchuks the man depicted here is a resident of that community.

References: For other Sanikiluaq works in this catalogue see lots 6 and 138. For works by a variety of Sanikiluaq artists see Bernadette Driscoll, Belcher Islands / Sanikiluaq, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1981).